the fairways are big enough for DJ and the long hitters to have a lot of decent length birdie putts. Phil had a lousy back 9 the 18th would have been a good birdie but probably wanted it too bad after the dismal 3 bogeys on back nine and it didn't fall. This is where the pressure is only going to get worse all week.

Phil went conservative which allowed him to avoid big numbers but it also killed his momentum...got to 3 under and probably could have reached 5 under but ended up 2 over on back nine...while Phil missed his birdie at 18 to get to 2 under which would have been a victory DJ holed a 10 footer to go to 6 under

Looks like the course is winning this afternoon. I would be happy if Phil can shoot 68 or 69 tomorrow. Sergio went to twitter and whined about the conditions of the greens. I say all the players have to putt on these greens, so no one should be crying. What was unfair was the last day of the 2004 US Open. That was like putting on glass.

CoJack wrote:Looks like the course is winning this afternoon. I would be happy if Phil can shoot 68 or 69 tomorrow. Sergio went to twitter and whined about the conditions of the greens. I say all the players have to putt on these greens, so no one should be crying. What was unfair was the last day of the 2004 US Open. That was like putting on glass.

last day of the 2004 us open was very fair. You hit a PERFECT shot, you were rewarded, as Phil and Goosen figured out for the most part. It was just that the perfect shot was not always going right at the hole. You had to play angles and use the slopes.

Shots less than perfect were severely punished, as they should be for a pro golfer

Remember, overall, 2004 was by far the EASIEST Shinnecock has ever played in a US Open

CoJack wrote:Looks like the course is winning this afternoon. I would be happy if Phil can shoot 68 or 69 tomorrow. Sergio went to twitter and whined about the conditions of the greens. I say all the players have to putt on these greens, so no one should be crying. What was unfair was the last day of the 2004 US Open. That was like putting on glass.

last day of the 2004 us open was very fair. You hit a PERFECT shot, you were rewarded, as Phil and Goosen figured out for the most part. It was just that the perfect shot was not always going right at the hole. You had to play angles and use the slopes.

Shots less than perfect were severely punished, as they should be for a pro golfer

Remember, overall, 2004 was by far the EASIEST Shinnecock has ever played in a US Open

You're the only one who I have heard say that. Here are a couple of articles about how the USGA screwed up the 2004 US Openhttp://sports.espn.go.com/golf/usopen04/news/story?id=1825341

Amateur Bill Haas said the greens were so slick, "I couldn't even lean on my putter. It would slide out from under me. It was like glass."

"If they play well, they deserve to be under par, but not like this," said Tiger Woods, who shot 76. "This is not the way it's supposed to be played."

Sunday, the 10th hole -- a par-4 -- played like a par-5 (it averaged 5.030). The seventh hole got all the attention because the USGA had to water the green to keep balls from trickling off it, but it wasn't even among the three hardest holes on the course.

"It was a great learning experience," Davis said. "When it comes to a U.S. Open, you've got the world's best players, and you're trying to set it up as the hardest event of the year. It's easy to go from that point to having a setup where well-executed shots are penalized. And that's exactly what was happening on some of the holes."

the greens at Shinnecock were so unplayable, that Goosen had a whole 11 putts on the final 9 holes. Phil had 14, and that is why he lost.

One thing to remember, Goosen was hitting it as crooked that final day as Tiger was yesterday. He even had a dead cold shank on 5. Had he hit it like a competent pro, he shoots 3 or 4 under that day. Had Phil not left his bunker shot above the hole on 17, he also shoots under par. You could score well that day. It's just that shots slightly off were punished. The players are used to a decent amount of forgiveness, that was not there